Before buying into a franchise I would ask yourself...
Are you more like a jellyfish or a salmon?
Jellyfish float through life and are taken on the waves and the current, being carried and directed, they can sometimes end up in an unknown destination.
Salmon are remarkable for their perseverance and determination as they swim upstream against strong currents to reach their spawning grounds. They have a strong sense of purpose and resilience. They are willing to face obstacles head-on, push through adversity and strive for their goal with unwavering determination.
This made me think about the growth and pathway of our business and how this has evolved over the years and a lot of it comes down to becoming a salmon.
Through nature and nurture, I was mostly a jellyfish. I did everything in order, I followed the paths that had been carved by others. I realised I was influenced by some of the people around me. Sometimes those inner voices got embedded in my subconscious, always feeding my mind to take the negative approach and erring on the side of caution.
Then I married a salmon!
I won’t credit everything to the salmon I married as he will grow too big for his fins but through a light bulb moment, I realised I had to become a salmon. I had to change my mindset.
I had grown a successful BabyBeats business locally; the money was coming in as well as the clients. I could have kept it going and pottered along nicely, being carried along by the waves.
But my mindset had changed. Rather than the ‘what ifs?’ they became the ‘why nots?’.
Riding the waves to your end goal isn’t always plain swimming, there are rocks and debris in the way and when you reach one destination, you then want to reach the next. The goal is always evolving and the streams don’t always stay straight, but having the mindset of being the driver of your own destiny is paramount.
If you believe in it and you feel it, if you can imagine it and you can see it, no one can stop you getting there.
On average BabyBeats has welcomed over 3,000 new mothers into classes annually. That figure grows dramatically every year with the introduction of new franchisees.
This small business idea of supporting women and their newborn babies through specifically designed postnatal exercises combined with baby yoga, massage and sensory play has evolved and become a stream with never-ending clients. As more and more women join BabyBeats as business owners, the more their streams feed into BabyBeats’ main goal of providing women with an amazing business opportunity and flexible working alongside being able to support women in their community.
While it can be tempting to be more jellyfish and follow a well-trodden path or conform to societal norms, being more salmon offers unique opportunities for personal growth, authenticity and contribution. It allows you to shape a life that aligns with your true self, make a difference and leave your own distinct mark on the world.
Jellyfish can change. Become more salmon and be the one responsible for reaching your goals.